Reviews

The Outdoor Research Highcamp Gloves are comfortable…

The Outdoor Research Highcamp Gloves are comfortable Primaloft lined winter gloves designed for moderately cold and wet winter weather. The outer shell is constructed using a combination of Ventia Dry nylon and goat leather in the palm area. Outdoor Research's usual top notch workmanship, great water resistance, an efficient gauntlet closure system, and included liner gloves, complete the package. As feature rich and good they are, however, improvements could be made.

Pros

Reasonably warm

Water resistant shell fabric

Efficient gauntlet closure system

Feature Rich

Cons

Water permeable leather palm

Wind permeable liner

The Primaloft lined Highcamp Gloves are warm, but not overly so. With the inserts, they are quite comfortable to about -10°C, but beyond this they become increasingly less so. While they may certainly be considered ‘winter’ gloves, they are not adequate for very cold conditions.

When the temps go well bellow zero, your best bet is to use the O.R. Alti Mitts, which are by far the warmest handwear I have ever owned.

The outer Ventia Dry fabric is highly water resistant though I hesitate to agree with O.R. that it is “waterproof,” until I have used them in much wetter weather. The leather palm, is another story.

O.R. uses two very different leathers in their handwear. My O.R. Alti Mitts use Pittards leather, an incredibly tough waterproof leather that needs little or no maintenance. The Highcamps use instead goat leather which is the same leather as my O.R StormTracker Gloves. This leather is water permeable and gets somewhat dry with use. Also, it is more easily damaged than Pittards.

I regularly treat this goat leather with McNett’s ReviveX Leather Gel Water Repellent & Conditioner. This product gives the leather a bit of water repellency that it otherwise lacks, and conditions and softens the leather so as to prevent cracking, which will occur if left untreated.

McNett's ReviveX Leather Gel

I would very much have preferred to have paid more for O.R. gloves with Pittards leather, but it appears that O.R. does not use Pittards with any of their glove styles, or at least none that I can determine, and that includes their Alti Gloves.

These gloves are comfortable whether used with or without the fleece liner gloves. As for the liners, it is quite difficult to remove the entire glove without the liners popping out with your hand. Keeping the liner inside the shell takes a bit of practice and finesse. Also, it would have been better had the liners been made out of a windproof fabric. Should you need to remove the outer shells to do work requiring greater tactility; the liners provide almost no wind protection. I have decided to substitute other liners that are windproof.

Included Liner Gloves

The two part gauntlet cinch system works very efficiently both when tightening and loosening, as does the mid-wrist tightening strap. These can be easily adjusted even with the gloves on. They also have pull loops to facilitate donning and hang straps for those with sleeve attachment loops on their jackets or elsewhere. As for sizing, be advised, that these gloves run small, so you will probably need to upsize.

Midwrist Tightening Strap Two Part Gauntlet Cinch System.

Pull Loop Hang Strap

All in all, these gloves are a respectable addition to the Outdoor Research product line, but there is definitely room for improvement.

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